Archive for month: September, 2015

In Islam we have been ordered to observe “Taqwa” or piety.

If we want to describe this word in brief we say:

Taqwa means to fear Allah and to feel the presence of Allah in all situations and under all circumstances.

If someone is familiar with the teachings of Islam, he/she definitely realizes that the base of all perfections in Islam is Taqwa.

There are hundreds of verses of the holy Quran in which the concept of Taqwa is used.

According to the second verse of chapter Bagharah, the Quran describes itself as guidance for the pious people, which means the real and complete guidance of the Quran is obtained through Taqwa.

If someone wants to be more respected to Allah than others, he/she must be pious, because Allah said in chapter Hojorat verse 13:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

“People, we have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you might know one another. The noblest of you before Allah is the most righteous of you. Allah is the knower, the aware”.

From this verse we understand that there is no any priority of any one over others, except through Taqwa, and no one can say that because for example I am from that great tribe, so I’m better than the other.

Through Taqwa we can reach to a powerful sight that makes us able to distinguish right from wrong. Allah said in chapter Anfal, verse 29:

يِا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ إَن تَتَّقُواْ اللّهَ يَجْعَل لَّكُمْ فُرْقَانًا وَيُكَفِّرْ عَنكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ وَاللّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ

“Believers, if you fear Allah, He will give you a criteria and cleanse you of your sins and forgive you, Allah is the owner of great bounty”.

Taqwa has different levels; the Islamic scholars in the field of morality have divided it into three levels:

-The level which is obtained through obeying obligations and prohibitions.

-The level that apart from performing the duties of the first level, can be reached through performing recommended acts and avoiding from Makruh(the acts which are not Haram and prohibited, but it is better to be left).

-The level that beside the deeds of the first and second levels can be achieved through making the heart only for the inhabitance of Allah and not letting others to enter in it.

Of course we must not force ourselves to reach to the third level in one night, because by this intention, in many cases we will make ourselves reluctant to worship of Allah and religion.

Another benefit of Taqwa is that through it, we can get rid of difficulties like satanic temptations. Allah said in chapter Talaq verses 2-3:

مَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا

وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ

“Whosoever fears Allah, He will appoint for him a way out.

And provide for him from where he does not expect”.

Another benefits that we can obtain through Taqwa which is understood from the above verse, is that the sustenance in both physical and spiritual meanings is achieved through Taqwa, the meaning of physical sustenance is clear, and the spiritual “Rezq” and sustenance can be manifested in different ways, like getting familiar with a prominent teacher in the field of morality, or finding a righteous friends or finding the chance for visiting the shrines of the infallibles etc. and for such a person who observes Taqwa, the next step of perfection gets clear.

According to the Quran, if someone wants to be beloved by Allah and wants to have good ending in the life, he/she must observe Taqwa.

If the servant of Allah does not observe Taqwa, his/her good deeds might not have its perfect effect, and it is like a patient, that does not restrain from eating the harmful meals, so even such a person, uses the best medical treatments, but because of not leaving the harmful food, the medicine has not its complete effect.

The holy Prophet of Islam said:

“Verily if you perform prayer so much to the extent that you become like the bow and if you fast so much to the extent that you become like the bowstring, these acts are not beneficial for you, except if you observe Taqwa.”

Molavi the great poet has composed an interesting poem related to our subject.

He said:

We try to fill the store full of wheat, and as much as we fill the store, we lose the wheat, because we are not aware that this store has mice that they eat the wheat.

So if we try to perform Mostahab and recommended acts, but do not abstain from committing the prohibited acts i.e. sins, these good deeds are not so beneficial for us.

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Source:

Hawzah.net

 

 

Seeking knowledge is so much recommended in Islam.

It is something which is innate the nature of human that he/she wants to have knowledge and know about different things.

Knowing the self and knowing about the world around us is a kind of knowledge that human wants to have.

The holy Prophet of Islam said:

“When Allah wants (to give) good to someone, He make that person a deep knowledgeable in religion.”

It is narrated from the Prophet that he said:

“An Alim(knowledgeable) person is higher than a Abid(worshiper) seventy levels.”

The holy Quran explicitly describes one of the missions of the holy Prophet of Islam to give knowledge to the people.

Allah said in chapter Jom’a verse 2:

هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

“It is He who has risen among the illiterate (Arabs), a messenger from themselves, to recite to them his verses, to purify them, and to teach them the book and the wisdom, though before that they were in clear error”.

Imagine you want to walk in night in a dark desert, you definitely need light, knowledge looks like the light in the darkness of different mistakes and wrongs and sins that we might commit, when we have light, we can look at our ahead and prevent ourselves from making mistakes, mistakes that sometimes need several years to compensate them, and as much as our light is more, our guidance is more and our making mistake gets less.

And it is interesting that in some Narrations, knowledge is called “Noor” which means light.

Having knowledge is so much important to the extent that Allah said in chapter Mojadalah verse 11:

يَرْفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ

“Allah will raise up in ranks those who believed among you and those who have been given knowledge.”

If someone has Ma’refah and knowledge of Allah, such a person, knows his/her Lord better and the worship that such a person performs, is more worthy than a simple worship.

If someone wants to have a right and correct movement in every field, definitely he/she needs knowledge.

Imam Ali peace be upon him said to one of his companions:

“There is no any movement except you need knowledge in it.”

Let me mention briefly some positions of knowledge which are mentioned in some Narrations, like:

-It is as a guide.

-It is as greatness and ignorance is as going astray.

-It is a great treasure which does not finish.

-It is as a resuscitator of the soul and enlightener of the intellect and remover of the ignorance.

-It obtains “life” for human.

It is very appropriate to define the meaning of knowledge here, because you know that the meaning of knowledge might be somehow different, but the common meaning in all schools of thought is to know something which you did not know it before.

In Islam “Ilm” (knowledge) means something that has the aspect of monotheism.

But it must be said that Islam is not against the technology and the developed sciences, and it has its own value especially when it is obtained for the sake of Allah for helping His creatures, but some of the usages of the knowledge and “Ilm” which are used in Islamic sources, mean its divine meaning, and for this reason, we see that Allah said in chapter Fatir verse 28:

إِنَّمَا يَخْشَى اللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْعُلَمَاء

“It is only those amongst His worshippers that fear Allah who have knowledge.”

And as the last point let me mention that the knowledge without acting according to that, is not so precious and in some cases it brings more responsibilities and more punishment on the day of judgment, and it is completely logical, because imagine two persons, one is aware of the commands of the boss, and the second is not aware, if both of them disobey their boss, which one causes more sadness for the boss? The one who was not aware, can bring the excuse of not being aware of the order of the boss, but such an excuse is not accepted from the aware person.

But if a person has knowledge and applies it in his/her life, he/she is among the best persons in the world.

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Sources:

Akhlagh.porsemani.ir

Maarefquran.org

 

Reciting the holy Quran is so much recommended in Islam.

As we mentioned before there is a very important Narration which is narrated by both Shia and Sunni from the holy Prophet of Islam that he said:

“I leave among you two precious things, one is the book of Allah and the other is my household, until you hold strongly to both of them, you will never go astray.”

It is mentioned in a Narration that the numbers of the levels of Paradise is the same as the verses of the holy Quran.

About the holy Quran some different acts are considered as Ibadah and worship of Allah, like reciting it, listening to its recitation, pondering upon its verses, writing its chapters and verses, obeying its obligations and prohibitions, taking lessons and examples from its stories, etc.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“The Quran is the treaty of Allah on the creatures and it is appropriate for every Muslim to look at his/her treaty and read it (at least) fifty verses every day.”

The holy Prophet of Islam said:

“The Quran is the table and feast of Allah, so learn from His feast and table as much as you can.”

And also he said:

“Enlighten your houses with the recitation of the Quran, if in a house the Quran is recited so much, the blessing gets so much in it and the inhabitants of that house will be in the vastness (of  livelihood) and they shine for the inhabitants of the heavens, just like the stars shine for the inhabitants of the earth.”

It is very interesting sentence that says: if you want Allah to talk to you, so recite the Quran, and if you want to talk to Allah, so perform prayer.

We all know that Allah has sent the holy Quran to the holy Prophet of Islam, the Prophet that bore so many hardships and made a lot of attempts for our guidance, if we refer to the books of history of Islam, we will get aware of some of the hardships that the holy Prophet and his companions tolerated.

We know that the holy Quran has two kinds of revelation, one is the revelation that took place in the night of Qadr( in the month of Ramadan) all in once, and the second revelation was through 23 years little by little and in different situations and because of various events and happenings, a lot of those situations happen to us, so we can take lessons from them and apply and implement them in our today’s life.

Another benefit of the recitation of the holy Quran is that it is one of the most obvious ways for removing the veils of negligence from our hearts, for example if we recite it every day and really ponder upon its verses or at least do pondering on some of its verses, it will remind us of our real position before Allah as His vicegerents on the earth.

The holy Quran is one of the most important gifts of Allah, there is a Narration which says: the one who is given the Quran by Allah, if he/she thinks that Allah has given anything better than the Quran to others, he/she has belittled a great thing (the holy Quran) and has counted something little as a great thing.

There are some ritual acts for reciting the holy Quran that if we observe them, we will take more benefits from it, like;

-Reciting with pondering on its verses.

-Reciting while having Wudu.

-Reciting the chapters of the holy Quran in our prayers.

-Reciting it in the state of humility and humbleness.

-Being joyful at the time of reaching to the verses which are related to the bounties of Allah in this world and in Paradise.

-Being sad at the time of reaching to the verses which are related to the punishments of Allah in this word and in the Hell.

-Giving the rewards of recitation of the holy Quran as the gift to the infallibles.

And at the end let me mention very briefly some of the other benefits of reciting the holy Quran according to the Narrations:

-Achieving to the welfare.

-The growth of “Iman” and faith in Allah.

-Being as a cause for fulfilling our wishes.

-Being as a cause for the sins of its reciters and the sins of their parents to be forgiven.

-Enhancing the time of using the power of sight.

-The purity of the heart.

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Sources:

Maarefquran.com

Hawzah.net

The life of human is mixed with different calamities and difficulties, that if the human has patience, he/she will be successful.

The meaning of patience is to be firm against the difficulty and to not give up before them or blame Allah because of that.

The meaning of patience in material issues is clear, but there is another kind of patience which is applied to the spiritual aspects, for example if the situations for committing a sin are ready and prepared for someone, but he/she despite of selfish eagerness toward that sin, does not commit it, it can be defined as a kind of the spiritual patience.

According to the Narrations, there are three kinds of patience:

1) Patience before the obedience of Allah, which means being firm against the problems in the ways of obeying Allah’s commands.

2) Patience before the disobedience of Allah, which means to be firm against the selfish desires which command us to commit sins.

3) Patience at the time of disasters and calamities.

In the holy Quran more than seventy times, the concept of patience has been used.

For example Allah said in chapter Zomar verse 10:

إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

“Surely, those who are patient will be recompensed in full without count.”

A lot of calamities that happen to us are as a kind of test that Allah examines us through them. Look at the verse 155 from chapter bagharah:

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوفْ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمَوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

“We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of goods, life and fruits. Give glad tidings to the patient.”

In the continuation of the mentioned verse, as description of the patients and their rewards, Allah said:

الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُواْ إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ

أُولَئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ

“Who, in adversity say: ‘we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.

On those will be prayers and mercy from their lord, those are guided.”

The great symbols of being patient are the prophets of Allah and the infallible Imams.

You know that they tolerated many difficulties in the way of promoting the religion of Allah and inviting others to it.

The story of Prophet Jacob is so famous in this regard. He had many properties, in a very great divine test, Allah took them even his children, and Prophet Jacob became ill to the extent that he was agonizing, but after tolerating all of these difficulties and being patient, his properties and children and his health returned and he was given more than before and the praise of Allah included him.

If the prophets of Allah were not patient and as soon as they confronted with difficulties were leaving their mission, there was no religion of Allah on the earth and all of its blessings did not reach to humanity.

We can take help form patience, Allah said in chapter Bagahrah verse 153:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَعِينُواْ بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلاَةِ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ

“Believers, seek assistance in patience and prayer, Allah is with those who are patient.”

It is very important for a believer to have the companionship of the All-Mighty Allah in his/her life, and one of the ways of obtaining this companionship as it is mentioned in the above verse, is through patience.

And the interesting point here is that in this verse both prayer and patience have been recommended, some exegesis said as the description of this relation: sometimes the patience of human gets hard for him/her, so the human can refuge to prayer.

Patience can be a key for entering paradise. Imam Baqir peace be upon him said in a very informative saying:

“Paradise is wrapped with calamities and patience (If we want to reach to it, we must pay its price i.e. patience), so the one who is patient in this world, he/she will enter Paradise, and Hell is wrapped with pleasures and different kinds of selfish eagerness, so the one who gives the (Haram and prohibited) pleasure of his/her ego to it, he/she will enter the Hell.”

The commander of the faithful Imam Ali peace be upon him mentioned one of the benefits of patience in this saying, he said:

“Take away the sorrow form yourself by the means of power of patience and good certainty.”

We must know that even if we tolerate calamities in this world and be patient, it is nothing compared to the convenience in the hereafter. Imam Ali peace be upon him in one of his sermons in which he talked about the characteristics of the pious individuals (which are compiled in the book of Nahj Al-balaghah) said:

“They were patient a few days, (because of that) they reached to long convenience.”

The wise Luqman sometimes was advising his son, one of his advices is mentioned in the verse 17 in chapter Luqman in the holy Quran, Allah said in that verse narrating the advice of Luqman:

يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا أَصَابَكَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ

“O’ my son, establish the prayer, order with honor but forbid dishonor, and bear patiently with whatever may fall upon you. Indeed that is true constancy.”

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Sources:

Eteghadat.com

Tahoor.com

 

 

“Feeding” the people especially the poor people is so much recommended in Islam.

You can see this feeding in general in some occasions like what happens in the day of Ashura( the tenth day of the lunar month of Mohharam in which we hold ceremonies for the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein peace be upon him and his faithful companions) or what happens at the month of Ramadan in which people feed others in the time of Iftar( at the sunset of the day of fasting) etc.

But we can feed others in other days of the year and obtain the rewards and blessings of this recommended act.

It is interesting that in Islamic Feqh and jurisprudence, in some cases Muslims must feed the needy, like if someone could not fast in the month of Ramadan and he/she did not compensate that in the other days of the year till the next month of Ramadan, he/she must give specific amount of food to numbers of poor people (of course it has some rules in detail that we do not talk about them here).

It is very shocking that in the holy Quran, Allah said in chapter Maaun verses 1-2-3:

أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ

فَذَلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ

وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَى طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ

“Have you seen he who belied the recompense?

It is he who turns away the orphan,

and does not urge others to feed the needy”.

We see that Allah blamed the one that does not encourage others to feed the poor.

And from 33 till 36 verses in chapter Haqqa, we understand that the one who did not believe in the great Lord and did not encourage others to feed the poor, he/she has no friend in the fire of Hell and he/she has no food except foul pus.

Now imagine what is the punishment of the one that not only does not encourage others to feed the poor, but also prevents them and forbid them to do so?

On the other hand, we see that in chapter Insan,  Allah has praised Imam Ali and Lady Fatimah and their two sons, Imam Hasan and Imam Husein peace be upon them all, because of feeding the poor and the orphan, and the captive.

There is an interesting story for which the chapter Insan revealed and it is accepted by all branches of Muslims, and let me mention very briefly that story, Imam Hasan and Imam Hussein got sick, so their parents i.e. Imam Ali and Lady Fatimah made Nazr (oath) that if our children get cured, we will fast for three days, the children got healthy, so the parents fasted three days and in every sunset of fasting .i.e. at the time of Iftar, a needy came to their house. In the first night a poor came at their door and asked for help and in the second night an orphan came and did so and this happened in the third night by an captive, this very generous family for all three nights gave their food for the sake of Allah to the poor and orphan and captive and remained hungry, and then the verses of chapter Insan descended, and if you refer to this chapter you will see that how much Allah has praised them in many verses one after the other.

We see this good customs in the life of the Prophets of Allah, for example there is a Narration that says: Prophet Abraham was chosen as the Khalil and dear friend of Allah because of some attributes, and among them, he was feeding the people.

Feeding the people especially the needy people creates a kind of sympathy and kindness among the people and paves the way for gathering the hearts with each other.

And this is a way for reducing and removing hunger and poverty from the members of the society.

It is narrated from Imam Sadiq peace be upon him that he said:

The one who makes a believer to taste the sweetness of a bit, Allah will make away from him/her the bitterness of the Day of Judgment.

It is mentioned in a Narration that a believer on the Day of Judgment is told: Look at the people and distinguish the one who has done a good to you and make the one who has drunk you and has fed you and has done good to you, enter paradise.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

There are three things that make the human released from the punishment of the hereafter:

-Feeding.

-Saying hello.

-And prayer in night or night prayer.

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Sources:

Maarefquran.org

Mehrnews.com